In Home Hospice Care will be singing the praise of the community at its upcoming fundraising event.
The event featuring local band Back Room Panic at the Glenburnie Hall on May 28 coincides with National Palliative Care Week which takes place from May 22-28.
The funds raised for the facility on the night will benefit recruitment, training and ongoing support for volunteers and management of client referrals.
In Home Hospice Care was established in 2020 through a State Government Palliative Care grant, however since government funding ended in November last year the service has relied on a $60,000 grant from a local business to continue until July.
In Home Hospice Care manager Sandi Elliot said the organisation must seek community funding or grants to continue as there was no guarantee of ongoing funding.
“We are continually having to source funding wherever we can and unfortunately it is the state of the nation as a majority of community hospices around Australia are supported by local fundraising,” she said.
“It may not be tens of thousands of dollars, but every bit helps us to operate a bit longer until we do find a major benefactor or sponsor or receive a grant.
“This is what the community does, they donate and they are so generous about it.
“Back Room Panic do charity work and they approached us and said they knew us and would like to be involved with our cause to which we took them up on their kind offer.”
Back Room Panic is a local band who has been performing together for a few years made up of band members Klaus Kipp, Mike Ryan, Bruce Menzies, Hilton Smith and Andrea Bartetzko.
Ms Bartezko said the band particularly liked to support groups that were looking to raise funds to help the community.
“Last year we raised money for the Royal Flying Doctors Service and Beyond Blue,” she said.
“We really love being a band together and bringing enjoyment to other people and if we can raise funds for various charities along the way then we are pretty excited.
“We find people of our vintage really like going back in time to the songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s so we just like having a jam session together and for the audience to have a good time, reminisce old songs and, get up and dance with us.
“We likely all have friends and relatives who have unfortunately passed away in hospital against their wishes and we just think supporting people to be able to die at home where they are comfortable is so important because it is providing choice for our community.”
Contact Sandi Elliot on manager@ihhcare.org.au or 0431 262 705 for more information about the program or to purchase tickets for the event.
